Plate

19th century

The top half of this fanciful plate depicts Fujin, the Japanese god of wind. He slings his heavy bag of wind over his muscled shoulders on a background of swirling air. The depiction of Fujin represents the pictorial, almost painterly, use of the cloisonné medium that was favored in nineteenth-century Japan. However, the lower section of the plate makes direct reference to the Chinese cloisonné tradition, with repeated patterns of birds and leaves against the popular turquoise ground. This plate is a rare example of the documented use of such Japanese imports in an American interior—used by Herter Brothers in the interior of the Fifth Avenue house of John Sloane in 1882.